In order to have authentic democracy, NRO’s Kevin D. Williamson writes, we need to insist that our politicians be truthful about the events and personalities of the real world—that they tell the truth about the people who are running for president. From cattle futures to bimbo eruptions to Internet authors inspiring terror attacks in Benghazi, Hillary Clinton is “morally, ethically, and intellectually unfit for the job.” Read more from Mr. Williamson here.
Democracy is not our form of government; it is an aspect of our form of government, and an important one. A republic without representative processes and democratic norms is no republic at all. Those democratic norms do not require that the capital-P People prevail — in fact, the best aspects of our constitutional order, such as the Bill of Rights, ensure that the People do not prevail when the People do not deserve to, e.g. when the People are having a bout of buffoonery. (The Bill of Rights: Top Ten Things You Idiots Don’t Get to Vote on.) But democratic norms do require that the People have a meaningful say in the debate, and there is no meaningful debate without at least a few agreed-upon facts. Debates have to take account of the real world.
